Narrow columns moving to their right or left front are very unfavorable targets for artillery, as it is very difficult for a battery commander to determine the relative position of bursts on the flank of a column with respect to the leading element thereof. Such shots are frequently considered as over. Numerous small columns, which make it difficult to designate a target, increase the time required by the hostile artillery to secure adjustment. Troops should not be posted in the vicinity of conspicuous objects, as, for example, trees, visible at a great distance.[114] Intrenchments that have just been thrown up should be made to look as nearly as possible like the surrounding country by covering them with snow, sod, or brush. It is made more difficult for the hostile artillery to secure adjustment, if our infantry changes position to the front or to a flank, if it moves rapidly or advances by rushes. [114] The cutting down of a poplar at Königgrätz decreased the effect of the Austrian artillery fire, which, previous to this, had caused rather serious losses. _Geschichte des Regiments, Nr. 2_, p. 36. A similar effect was produced by tearing down a house at Lovtcha. KUROPATKIN-KRAHMER, _Kritische Rückblicke auf den Russisch-Türkischen Krieg_, I, p. 59. It is easy, as a rule, for the artillery to adjust its fire upon masks, but difficult to determine the distance between mask and target. It is an advantage when masks are situated obliquely to a position. As masks (rows of trees) may cause the premature burst of projectiles having percussion fuzes, they should be at least 200 m. from the troops they are to =screen=.[115] When so situated they frequently afford better protection than actual intrenchments. [115] Fight of some Prussian batteries against a French battery masked by chaussee trees at Weiszenburg. See HOFFBAUER, _Deutsche Artillerie_, I, pp. 13 and 49. The 4th Light and the 4th Heavy Batteries of the 10th Field Artillery (German) were able to maintain their position east of Mars-la-Tour, under the fire of superior hostile artillery, because they were screened by the trees and the embankment of the chaussee thirty paces in their front. _Kriegsgeschichtliche Einzelschrift_, 25, p. 18.